| abstract | - The scene opens upon a dimly lit ready room deep within the bowels of the Ord Mantell military base. Track lighting lines the floors to allow for easy walking. Slightly slanted, the small auditorium contains a series of stadium style seats all facing a platform at the front. The New Republic logo hovers over a small overprojector next to a podium at the front. The assorted, gathered pilots are given a few minutes to chat. Dressed in their flight jumpsuits with helmets at the ready, a line of Astromech droids for the pilots are gathered at the rear to also hear the briefing. Coffee is made available, and for a few minutes the pilots get to chat. "Officer on deck!" A voice calls out, as the first pilots are given their queue to rise and stand at attention. Seated among the other pilots and military personnel in the ready room is the Quarren, Lyrik Welkar waits patiently for the mission briefing to start. This would be his first real mission since joining StarOps and he was feeling a mixture of excitement and nervousness. He sits quietly, listening to snippets of conversation from the others gathered but refraining from joining in for the moment. When the officer announcement is made, the Quarren stands along with the others. Footsteps coming from the rear, 2nd Lieutenant Raxis L'ygr appears in view as he pads down the side-ramps towards the podium. "Take your seats, ladies and gentlemen," He says flatly as he taps over a datapad as he walks. Stepping up the small pair of stairs at the base of the platform. Stopping at the podium, he grips it on the sides and scans over the assembled pilots. With the press of a button, the holoprojector blips to show a readout of the Heavy Corvette "Audacity". "Preparations for the mission has begun, Captain Baysarus will be along shortly to assign squadrons and formations." He pauses, turning to them. "Pilots. Your mission today will be to escort and protect the Audacity on a standard patrol. Now you all know we've had some light pirate activity in the sector recently so I'll be direct to tell you to use both your eyes and your sensors to watch for echoes. Protection of the Audacity is the objective here people. It's imperative that we give the girl smooth sailing and few blemishes on her patrol. You've all had your training and your simm time, so you know what the New Republic expects of you." Looking up, he pauses and steps aside to the podium. "I turn you all now over to Captain Beysarus. Officer on deck!" Strolling towards the front of the room and the podium, Captain Kesander Beysarus looks about himself at the pilots, now standing at attention, using his accustomed assessing glance. "As you were, people," says Sandman "Have a seat. I'll try to make this as quick as possible," he adds with a subdued but directive tone. "For the purposes of Audacity's patrol, Ghost Squadron will be performing escort duty. This is pretty much by the book, people. Banshee Flight will be forward, Spectre Flight has flanking security, Ghoul Flight has rear security. Transmitting your mission data to your datapads....now," announces the Corellian, removing the stylus from his instrument to quickly tap a few instructions into the device. "For the purposes of this exercise, Falcon Squadron will be performing long-range recon. You guys get to give your A-Wings a nice work-out. Falcons, your own CO will be giving you your mission objectives and profile details in the briefing following this one," adds the StarOps Captain. As Kesander's eyes briefly tally the number of Falcon pilots in the room, he again taps the stylus on his datapad. "Dagger Squadron, you all apparently have your own separate mission today. Squadron torpedo assault drills from what I've got on my 'pad. As with Falcon, your own CO and XO will be briefing you all shortly. Unless you all have any questions, that's all I've got, people." Lyrik returns to his seat and leans forward to listen. Protecting the patrolling Audacity shouldn't be too difficult. They weren't likely to run into anything serious. If there did happen to be any pirates around, they probably wouldn't cause any trouble. When Beysarus enters, the Quarren once again stands and then sits with the others. He listens to the duties issued to each flight within the ghosts, noting where he and the other Spectres will be. One by one, the astromech droids exit in a single file line to board a carryall. Customarily, they will be taken to the tarmac and loaded into their assigned X-wings. No beeps of binary speech are uttered from them, duty in mind. Stone faced, Raxis folds his arms behind his back as the holoprojector begins to replay a screen saver designed to show the mission's flight plan alongside three selected rendez-vous points. Similar to the information loaded into the datapads, Raxis nods a hello to Lyrik, who as a Spectre has been assigned to flanking duty of the Audacity. Brows lowered in an official 'game face', Raxis nods to the squadron. "That settles it then. Consider yourself at ease gentlemen. You have until ten minutes from now to report to your squadrons on the flight deck. Until then, you are dismissed to time as you see fit. The cafeteria is closed to you. Water, coffee and bread people. There's G-forces out there." He finishes with a wry grin.
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